‘Cabinets’ is a series of eight exhibitions which explore the working process of internationally renowned artists both emerging and established. ‘Cabinets’ is a unique series of exhibitions, which has as its overriding reference point, the Renaissance phenomenon ‘The Cabinet of Curiosity’.

The term is derived from the so-called ‘Wunderkammer’ or ‘Kunstkabinett’, the cabinet of curiosities dating back to the late renaissance which brought together personal and private collections of artifacts, curios and objets-d’art. The idea of the museum collection is said to originate in these modest spaces; here, heterogeneous works coexist in a spatial frame that ask the visitors to consider their explicit or implicit relationships.

The cabinet can also be seen as relevant to the classic period of Modernism that led to the spatial concept of the ‘White Cube’ that endures to this day. Stripped bare and expanded, the White Cube is not so much a space but an idea. Held within its barely perceptible frame is the very notion of art, and though installation art, performance and other disciplines attempted to undermine its discourse, we keep returning to it.

The cabinets in the space at SE8 refer to these antecedents, but they also offer a nod to the idea of miniaturisation: three glazed containers placed within the larger white gallery space. Though the aim of the series is to show a number of key artists from the International art scene, it also endeavours to make us think about the issue of display, context and the relationship between the artwork and the space. Perhaps these works are not installations, but they are certainly of installation.